Church and a strong evangelical. Tom was thus on the fringes of the evangelical community. He was familiar with their doings, but at the same time was critical, having begun the process of emancipation from his background.
Tom, effervescent, rather cocksure, but shrewd and enthusiastic, was Cody’s best friend at the university. He was the one who usually wired Cody his examination results when Cody was home on vacation. He wrote Cody long, gossipy letters and kept him posted on the doings of the Anglican Church and the evangelical community.
Cody’s initial contact with J.P. Sheraton, the Wycliffe principal, occurred at the end of his second year at UC. He received a note from Sheraton dated May 24, asking Cody to come and see him the next day after breakfast. Sheraton had heard from Des Barres that Cody had achieved a high standing and was leaving town the next day.
Cody’s subsequent interview with Sheraton must have been satisfactory, since it was followed by the development of their relationship in the fall of 1887. By October 14, Sheraton had developed such confidence in Cody that he made repeated efforts, apparently unsuccessful, to persuade Cody to act as his son’s tutor. He also asked for Cody’s help with a Bible class he had started for university students: “What about the Bible Class on Sunday afternoons? Will you help me, if I go on with it? I am reluctant to give it up, and yet I do not wish to begin unless the students cordially desire it.” Cody and Des Barres promised to lend a hand and Sheraton was grateful.15 Before long Sheraton relied on Cody as a faithful supporter. Their relationship was destined to continue.
Chapter 3
Relatives and Friends, 1885–1889
While Cody was going from strength to strength at the university, letters from relatives and friends kept him in touch with home. Family letters give glimpses of his appearance and demeanour in the late 1880s – “a great tall fellow” with a nose that “can be seen”; his brow in childhood, “a sunny frank one”; “still as modest and unassuming as ever,” chopping firewood for his father when he was home in the holidays in 1886. In short he was a most engaging young man.1
An event occurred in 1885 that altered Cody’s relationship with his father. Elijah, now 41, married again. His second wife, Estelle Barker, was 30. Apparently, Cody did not get on with his stepmother. She was only thirteen years older than he, and he may have resented her as a young usurper. However, all parties to tried to make their relationship amicable. There are cordial letters from Estelle to Harry, Elijah was pleased that Harry called Estelle ‘Mother’ and wrote: “Our darling mother is doing everything possible to make home cheerful, and me comfortable she is so pleased at your calling her mother, in all your letters darling refer to her lovingly and kindly as she truly loves you.”2
Elijah strove for friendly relations between his son and his wife. In 1887, when Harry was coming home for Christmas, he sent him five dollars with the words, “Do not forget to bring some little thing for baby, a picture book or some little toy.”3 Despite his efforts, the situation remained brittle. Cody still came home for holidays, but he made the trip more palatable by going round by Galt on the way. After 1885 his visits to Embro were infrequent, and when he did come he often found the house of his Uncle Merv and his daughter, Phila, more congenial. He never felt really at home in the Cody house in Embro.
The rift between Cody and his stepmother was deep and permanent. There were several later indications of their estrangement. When Maurice, Cody’s son, was drowned in 1927, Elijah attended the funeral, but his wife did not. After Elijah’s death a tombstone was erected with his name upon it and room for Estelle’s name when she should die. Cody put up a stone in his mother’s name, with the inscription at the bottom, “erected by her only son.”
Except for its effect on Cody, Elijah’s second marriage was happy. There were four children – May, Frederick D., Maxwell B., and Ernest. Cody got on well with his half-brothers and half-sister. Since he was so much older they probably regarded him as a sort of uncle but they always enjoyed his visits. According to Cody’s wife Barbara, none of them looked like Cody but they all looked like his father.4
C.E. Silcox, the son of the Congregational minister in Embro, gave a pleasant picture of the Cody household at the time. Silcox was fond of Estelle, whom he called “Mother Cody.” He used to play with the Cody children, especially Fred, who was about his own age. Silcox and Fred used to visit Elijah in his office (he was town clerk at the time). Elijah would “lift us up on a great big desk and ask us to preach a sermon for him! It is reported that we used to preach quite vigorously at the mature age of five, announcing our text from the somewhat apocryphal book of Goliath, and usually concluding with the words ‘Whosoever believeth not, shall be damned.’”5
Cody’s letters from relatives and friends also dealt with the general issues of the period: elections in Canada in 1887 and in the United States in 1888; visits to Galt and Detroit by the famous abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher; and Shakespearean performances by the famous tragedians Booth and Barrett.
Elijah, who had close connections with the Presbyterians in Embro, kept urging Cody to cultivate friendly relations with Knox College. After Principal MacVicar of Presbyterian College in Montreal had visited Embro, Elijah wrote: “We had a fine treat last Sunday Principal MacVicar Montreal preached for Mr. Munro [the local minister] both sermons. Mr. Munro came over Saturday morning expecting you home and very kindly invited you over to spend Sunday with the Principal was that not very kind and thoughtful of him.”6 Perhaps Elijah and Mr. Munro were anxious to recruit such a promising young man for the Presbyterian ministry. If so, they were a bit late.
Letters from Elijah and also from Grandpa Torrance continued to be heavily political and Tory in tone. Thus, from Elijah: “[January 29, 1887] I have been away two days this week: one day at the Tory Convention at Woodstock”; “[March 4, 1887, after the general election of February 22] The Grits here feel pretty blue about the Elections. They were predicting about 40 majority for Blake – In the next house Sir John will have at least 30 majority.” There was one jarring note. Cody had been seeing a good deal of Edward Blake, the Liberal leader, probably because Blake was chancellor of the university and a strong Wycliffe supporter. Elijah wrote on June 15, 1886: “I am a little bit offended with you having so much to do with Ed. Blake.” In other letters in the period Elijah reported a conversation in Ottawa with J.C. Rykert, the Lincoln MP who had spoken fondly of Harry, and urged Harry to attend a Tory picnic.7 And so it went.
Grandpa Torrance was equally political. His Tory prejudice spanned the Atlantic. When Harry was disappointed in his examination results in 1888, Grandpa wrote by way of comfort that he should notice that “Beaconsfield – that shining light was hurled from power – by the despicable traitor Gladstone often, and our Old Chieftain John A. has suffered defeats.”8 Grandpa Torrance was not an educated man and made fairly frequent spelling mistakes, but he wrote with vigour, emotion, and intelligence. No doubt aware of Grandpas limitations, Cody loved the old man and cherished his letters along with those from other family members.
Grandpa was more strongly anti-Catholic than the rest of the family. He referred to “the means by which that pagan and Idolatrous Church has gained such influence and Exercised Such Tyranny over the masses.”9 Like other Canadian Tories, he showed signs of becoming a Canadian nationalist. When the University of Toronto appointed a Britisher as professor of political science in 1888, Grandpa wrote indignantly on July 10: “I am sorry to see – for the credit of Canada – that the chair of political science had to be filled by an Oxford man – but the day is not far distant when a professor’s chair will be filled by a young Canadian and that by acclamation – such is my prophecy.”
There was concern in Embro and Galt in the 1880s about the Darwinian controversy. When A.R. Wallace, Darwin’s famous colleague, gave lectures at
